Cases of Interest

The Mississippi Court of Appeals handed down two cases of interest yesterday.  The first is Reno v. Reno located here.  This case has an interesting issue.  Both parties agreed to a divorce on irreconcilable differences and testified on the record to the same.  Problem is they never put the same in writing as required by the statute.  The Court of Appeals found the divorce was void for failure to comply with the statute.  As such, two years after the fact, the parties are legally now still married.  If either of them have remarried, there is a whole other can of worms waiting to happen. 

The Court of Appeals also decided Pelton v. Pelton located here.  The main issue on this case was that the chancellor made no findings of fact under the Armstrong factors nor the Ferguson factors as required under the caselaw.  The chancellor merely announced what the judgment was.  I previously talked about that here.  As such, the entire case was sent back.  From a practical standpoint, the court on remand can make the identical ruling with an analysis on the record and probably be affirmed.